Intel Sees Bright Future for Atom & Moblin

Posted on September 22, 2009 12:20 PM by Rob Williams

At IDF, Paul Otellini gave the opening keynote, and by the end, it became clear that Atom is a huge part of the company’s future. Otellini stated that Atom isn’t only going to be used for netbooks and nettops, but in the future, Atom will act as a base to virtually all devices that don’t require high raw performance… from netbooks to MIDs to phones and so forth.

To prove just how serious the company is about the future of Atom, they have launched a developer network for use as a resource for developing applications for use across the wide-variety of platforms that will feature Atom. In addition, you can expect to see “app stores” available for Atom-equipped device, similar to app stores for devices like the iPhone.

The best part? Because these applications will be based on Intel’s Atom development toolkits, they will run across both Windows and Moblin-based devices. This means huge potential for developers, since they can focus development on IA, and have it run on multiple platforms. Moblin is another focus of Intel’s, and I’m happy to hear it. It’s open-sourced, and can be used anywhere, from cell phones to MIDs to small desktops.

What should you take away from this? Expect Atom to become an integral part of future computing, especially where mobile is concerned. Otellini even went on to state that he sees Atom outselling the company’s desktop processors in the near-future. That’s a pretty bold statement, but given that many people own just one or two computers, yet many mobile devices, it’s easy to believe.

The overall theme of the keynote was this… the continuum. Intel wants to see technology grow and constantly improve, and to help accomplish this, their product developments and the developers are going to make some great things happen. During the keynote, Otellini showed a slide of ideas that the regular consumer had for future technology, and though some were wacky, some ideas were great (such as a retina-based security system). The future is indeed bright.

On the performance desktop side, 32nm Westmere is currently in production and will become available during Q4 of this year, with Core i3 processors due in early 2010. A 22nm wafer, as seen above, was also showed off (of SRAM), and Intel stated that it’s on track to launch in 2011, complying with the company’s Tick/Tock cadence.